Lais, the name of two celebrated courtesans of ancient Greece. I* The elder Lai's lived in the time of the Peloponnesian war, and is generally supposed to have been a native of Corinth. She was considered the most beautiful woman of her age, but was also remarkable for her avarice and caprice. Among her lovers was the philosopher Aristippus, who dedicated two of his works to her. She grew enamored of Eu-botas of Cyrene, who promised to take her to his native city if he should prove victor in the Olympic games. He succeeded, and fulfilled his promise by taking thither her portrait. In her old age she became intemperate, and died at Corinth, where a monument was erected to her memory in the grove called the Cranion.

II. The Younger Lais Was A Native Of Hyccara In Sicily

II. The Younger Lais Was A Native Of Hyccara In Sicily, and lived in the age of Philip and Alexander the Great. She removed to Athens in her youth, and is said to have been induced by the painter Apelles to adopt the profession of a courtesan. She became the rival of the famous Athenian hetaera Phryne; but falling in love with a handsome Thessalian youth named Hippolocus, she accompanied him to his native country, where her beauty exciting the jealousy and envy of some of her sex, they allured her into a temple of Venus, and there stoned her to death. She was buried on the banks of the Peneus; the inscription engraven on her monument is given by Athenasus.